FOREIGN  CHRtSTUVH^  MlsO>NARY  SOCIETY  SERIES. 

5$^*^ 


N> 


The  Success  of  Modern  Missions 


THE  LOWEST  CLASSES  HAVE 
^ BEEN  REACHED. 


My  won!  shall  not  return  unto  me  voiil.— Isa.  55:11. 


By  F.  M.  RAINS 


An  address  delivered  at  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 


TV  /r  ANY  did  not  regard  the  conversion  of 
the  heathen  practicable  a century  ago. 
When  William  Carey  proposed  to  an  assembly 
of  preachers  that  something  be  done  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  heathen,  the  president 
arose  hastily,  and  shouted  in  displeasure, 
“Young  man,  sit  down ! When  God  pleases 
to  convert  the  heathen  he  will  convert  them 
without  your  aid  or  mine.”  A bishop  of  the 
Church  of  England  publicly  and  powerfully 
argued  against  the  idea  of  the  missionary  en- 
terprise. The  Parliament  of  England  declared 
against  it.  In  1796  the  General  Assembly  of 
Scotland  carried  the  following  resolution  : “To 
spread  abroad  a knowledge  of  the  gospel 
among  barbarous  and  heathen  nations  seems 
to  be  highly  preposterous  inasmuch  as  it  antici- 
pates, nay,  it  even  reverses  the  order  of  na- 
ture.” One  preacher  praised  the  “ happy  ig- 
norance of  the  untutored  savage.”  When  a 
charter  was  asked  of  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 
lature for  the  American  Board,  a member  ob- 
jected on  the  ground  that  America  had  no 
religion  to  spare.  The  proposal  provoked 
much  opposition.  Missions  to  the  heathen 
have  been  called  “ organized  hypocrisy.”  The 
secular  press  generally,  until  quite  recently, 
spoke  in  terms  of  disparagement  and  mild 
contempt  of  missions.  Foreign  missions  have 
been  pronounced  a failure  over  and  over  again. 
It  is  my  purpose  to  show  they  have  been  a 


success.  In  this  paper  I shall  aim  to  prove 
that  the  lowest  classes  have  been  reached. 

The  gospel  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  has  worked  a marvelous  change.  Sav- 
age strifes  embittered  the  lives  of  the  people. 
Wars  among  them  were  almost  incessant  and 
most  cruel.  John  Williams,  the  missionary, 
once  visited  Harvey  Island,  and  found  that  its 
population  had  been  diminished  by  war  from 
two  thousand  to  sixty ; seven  years  afterward, 
he  again  visited  this  island,  and  found  that 
there  were  only  five  men  and  three  women 
surviving,  and  these  were  still  contending  who 
should  be  king. 

Captain  Cook  expressed  the  opinion  that 
nothing  would  ever  be  done  to  christianize  the 
Pacific  Islands.  He  declared  “ there  were  no 
motives  in  public  ambition  or  in  private  avarice 
for  such  an  undertaking.”  He  knew  little  or 
nothing  of  the  motives  that  move  men  in  the 
enterprise  of  world-wide  missions,  which  had 
its  origin  in  the  highest  development  of  Chris- 
tian character. 

In  December,  1794,  a company  of  ministers 
met  in  London  and  formed  the  now  historic 
London  Missionary  Society,  and  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  meeting  said:  “We  are  called 
together  for  the  funeral  of  bigotry ; and  I 
hope  it  will  be  buried  so  deep  as  never  to  rise, 
again.”  The  constitution  of  the  new  society 
declared  that  “the  design  of  the  society  was 
not  to  send  Presbyterianism,  Independency, 


3 


Episcopacy,  or  any  other  form  of  church  order 
or  government,  but  the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God  to  the  heathen.”  The  new  society 
purchased  and  equipped  a ship  at  an  expense 
of  $58,000.  Thirty  missionaries  were  sent  to 
Tahiti.  In  September,  1796,  the  good  ship 
“ Duff,”  flying  an  ensign,  the  figure  of  a dove 
with  an  olive  branch  in  her  mouth,  sailed  from 
Portsmouth.  The  people  of  Tahiti  not  only 
worshiped  innumerable  gods,  but  also  the 
spirits  of  deceased  ancestors.  Immorality, 
polygamy  and  infanticide  prevailed  to  a won- 
derful extent.  The  children  were  generally 
killed  by  strangling  or  by  piercing  with  a 
bamboo.  A missionary  once  asked  three 
women,  whom  he  casually  met,  whether  they 
had  killed  any  of  their  children.  One  replied 
that  she  had  killed  nine,  another  seven,  and 
another  three.  A father  of  nineteen  children 
confessed  to  the  murder  of  them  all,  and  after 
hearing  the  gospel  he  wept  at  the  remembrance 
of  their  deaths.  The  wife  of  a chief  was 
greatly  troubled  in  the  hour  of  her  death  by 
remembering  that  she  had  put  to  death  her 
sixteen  children. 

There  were  almost  continual  wars.  During 
the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  mission  there  were 
ten  wars.  James  Alexander  says  : “The  im- 
morality of  the  Tahitians  reached  its  climax 
in  the  strange  organization  of  men  and  women, 
called  Aeroi,  who  lived  together,  indiscrimi- 
nately, without  marriage,  spending  their  time 


4 


in  licentious  dancing  and  feasting  from  village 
to  village,  and  killed  their  children.  They 
kept  up  their  organization  only  by  initiating 
new  members.” 

Captain  Cook  said  : “There  is  a scale  of 
dissolute  sensuality  which  this  people  have 
ascended  wholly  unknown  to  every  other  na- 
tion, and  which  no  imagination  could  possibly 
conceive.” 

Such  was  the  condition  of  this  otherwise 
charming  island  when  the  brave  missionaries 
reached  it.  Pomare,  the  king,  was  most  vi- 
cious and  savage.  The  missionaries  estimated 
that  during  a reign  of  thirty  years  he  sacrificed 
two  thousand  human  victims  as  offerings  to  his 
idols. 

After  a long  night  of  sixteen  years  of  toil, 
the  gray  light  of  a new  day  could  be  seen. 
A chapel  was  built  at  the  request  of  the  king. 
Soon  the  converts  were  numbered  by  the  hun- 
dreds. The  national  idol,  Oro,  was  qow  made 
a post  for  the  king’s  kitchen,  and  finally  cut 
up  for  fire-wood.  Nearly  all  the  other  idols 
were  destroyed,  together  with  the  temples  and 
altars.  Twelve  of  the  idols  were  sent  to  the 
London  Missionary  Society  as  souvenirs.  The 
natives  aided  in  building  schools  and  churches. 
The  king  erected  a great  house  of  worship 
containing  three  pulpits.  He  was  baptized  in 
the  presence  of  four  thousand  of  his  subjects. 
The  missionaries  aided  in  writing  a code  of 
laws,  and  when  it  was  finished  the  king  called 


together  seven  thousand  natives  and  read  it  to 
them.  It  was  well  enforced.  This  code  of 
laws  gave  peace  and  order  and  prosperity  to 
the  island.  The  king  died  in  a joyful  Christian 
hope.  The  work  went  on  from  island  to  island, 
and  many  renounced  and  destroyed  their  dumb 
idols  to  serve  the  living  God.  In  1839,  Captain 
Harvey  made  the  following  observation  re- 
specting Tahiti:  “This  is  the  most  civilized 
place  I have  seen  in  the  South  Seas.  It  is 
governed  by  a dignified  young  lady  of  twenty- 
five  years  of  age.  They  have  a good  code  of 
laws,  and  no  liquors  are  allowed  to  be  landed 
on  the  island.  It  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying 
sights  the  eye  can  witness,  to  see  on  Sunday  in 
their  church,  which  holds  about  five  thousand 
people,  the  queen  near  the  pulpit  with  all  her 
subjects  around  her,  decently  clothed  and 
seemingly  in  pure  devotion.”  Charles  Dar- 
win, the  naturalist,  had  only  words  of  com- 
mendatioTi  for  this  missionary  work.  After  a 
visit  to  the  island,  he  said:  “Before  we  lay 
down  to  sleep,  the  elder  Tahitian  fell  on  his 
knees,  and,  with  closed  eyes,  repeated  a long 
prayer  in  his  native  tongue.  He  prayed  as  a 
Christian  should  do,  with  fitting  reverence, 
and  without  a fear  of  ridicule  or  any  ostenta- 
tion of  piety.  At  our  meals,  neither  of  the 
men  would  taste  food  without  saying  before- 
hand a short  grace.  . . . On  the  whole, 

it  appears  to  me  that  the  morality  and  religion 
of  the  inhabitants  are  highly  creditable.” 

6 


Tahiti  became  a radiating  center  of  the  gos- 
pel light.  Native  converts  went  to  neighboring 
islands  preaching  the  AVord.  The  natives  on 
surrounding  islands,  three  hundred  miles  away, 
hearing  that  Tahiti  had  abolished  the  worship 
of  idols,  came  to  obtain  books  and  to  receive 
instruction.  The  missionaries  witnessed  the 
literal  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  “The  isles 
shall  wait  for  His  law.”  The  news  spread  as 
far  as  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  where  idolatry 
was  voluntarily  abandoned  before  a missionary 
from  America  had  ever  reached  the  islands. 
The  high  priest  was  the  first  to  apply  the  torch 
to  the  heathen  temples.  The  natives  went 
every-where  destroying  images  and  sanctuaries 
of  their  paganism,  even  to  the  most  distant 
islands. 

band  of  missionaries  from  Boston  reached 
Hawaii  in  1820.  The  people  were  given  over 
to  the  most  senseless  idolatry  and  to  the  most 
revolting  immorality.  Modesty  was  unknown, 
and  the  traffic  in  female  virtue  became  a trade, 
and  every  foreign  vessel  was  a floating  Sodom. 
Marriage  laws  were  unknown.  The  paganism 
of  the  people  took  on  its  worst  form  at  the  fu- 
nerals of  their  chiefs.  Besides  making  human 
sacrifices,  they  utterly  abandoned  themselves 
to  sensuality  and  violence.  They  threw  aside 
the  restraints  of  decency  as  they  did  their 
clothing.  They  filled  the  air  with  loud  and 
long-continued  wailings  and  the  noise  of  shell- 
trumpets.  They  knocked  out  their  front  teeth. 


7 


lacerated  their  bodies,  set  fire  to  houses,  danced 
in  a state  of  nudity,  and  appeared  more  like 
demons  than  human  beings.  They  put  their 
children  to  death.  One  woman  told  a mis- 
sionary that  she  had  buried  all  of  her  thirteen 
children  alive.  The  missionaries  once  rescued 
a boy  from  the  grave  in  which  he  had  been 
placed  to  be  buried  alive,  and  he  grew  up  in 
their  care  and  became  the  most  popular  preacher 
in  Hawaii. 

The  presence  of  the  missionaries  soon  worked 
a wonderful  reformation  among  the  people. 
Congregations  numbering  thousands  gathered 
to  hear  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Schools 
were  opened.  The  king  was  the  first  pupil, 
and  after  he  had  learned  to  read  he  gave  com- 
mand that  every  one  in  his  kingdom  should 
attend  the  mission  schools.  In  a few  years 
30.000  of  the  people  were  able  to  read  and 
write.  The  missionaries  soon  prepared  school- 
books, tracts,  and  translations  of  the  Scriptures. 
In  1832  a translation  of  the  New  Testament 
had  been  distributed.  Titus  Coan,  the  mission- 
ary, could  not  go  to  all  who  were  anxious  to 
hear.  He  asked  them  to  come  to  him.  The 
people  settled  by  the  thousands  around  the 
little  village  of  Hilo,  and  here  was  held  for 
two  years  a unique  “ camp  meeting.”  There 
was  not  an  hour,  day  or  night,  that  he  could 
not  rally  an  audience  of  from  2,000  to  6,000, 
at  the  sound  of  a bell.  The  old  church  was 
packed  with  6,000  hearers  and  a new  building 
8 


with  half  as  many  more.  He  had  no  leisure. 
He  once  spoke  three  times  before  breakfast. 
He  set  the  people  to  work,  and  more  than 
40,000  were  visited  from  house  to  house  with- 
in five  miles  of  the  central  station. 

During  twelve  months  5,244  people  had 
been  received  into  the  church.  On  one  Sun- 
day he  baptized  1,705,  and  2,400  sat  down 
together  at  the  Lord’s  Supper.  What  a scene 
was  that!  What  a gathering!  The  liar,  the 
thief,  the  murderer;  the  mothers  whose  hands 
had  reeked  with  the  blood  of  their  own  child- 
ren ; those  whose  eyes,  noses,  lips  and  limbs 
had  been  consumed  with  the  fire  of  their  own 
or  their  parents’  former  lusts,  gathered  about 
the  table  of  the  Lord.  The  hoary  priest  of 
idolatry,  with  hands  but  recently  washed  from 
the  blood  of  human  victims,  was  at  that  service. 
These  all  met  before  the  cross  of  Christ  with 
their  enmity  slain,  “washed  and  sanctified  and 
justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.” 

During  the  five  years  ending  June,  1841, 
7,557  persons  were  received  into  the  church  at 
Hilo.  When  Titus  Coan  left  Hawaii  he  had, 
himself,  baptized  about  12,000.  Sunday  was 
better  kept  than  in  the  United  States.  Fifteen 
houses  of  worship  w'ere  built,  mainly  with  the 
labor  and  money  of  the  people  themselves; 

If  you  were  to  go  to  Honolulu  you  would 
feel  like  you  were  in  a city  of  this  country. 
You  would  see  street-cars,  telegraph  and  tele- 


9 


phone  lines,  and  electric  lights.  You  would 
find  a score  of  steamers  plying  between  the 
islands  and  other  lands.  You  would  see  natives 
dressed  like  Americans,  engaged  as  teachers, 
lawyers,  ministers  and  government  officers. 
Where  seventy-five  years  ago  there  was  an  un- 
clothed race  of  savages,  you  would  now  find 
a civilized  community,  supporting  their  own 
churches,  and  with  marvelous  success  carrying 
on  Foreign  Missions.  The  Hawaii  national 
motto  is:  “The  life  of  the  county  is  righteous- 
ness.” Hon.  Richard  H.  Dana,  a distinguished 
lawyer  of  Boston,  while  on  a visit  to  the  island 
in  i860,  wrote  as  follows:  “Whereas  the  mis- 
sionaries found  this  island  a nation  of  half- 
naked  savages,  living  in  the  surf  and  on  the 
sand,  eating  raw  fish,  fighting  among  them- 
selves, tyrannized  over  by  feudal  chiefs,  aban- 
doned to  sensuality;  they  now  see  them  de- 
cently clothed,  recognizing  the  laws  of  marriage, 
going  to  school  and  church  with  more  regularity 
than  our  people  do  at  home,  and  the  more 
elevated  portion  of  them  taking  part  in  the 
constitutional  monarchy  in  which  they  live.” 
The  aborigines  of  New  Zealand  not  only 
feasted  on  enemies  who  were  killed  in  battle, 
but  they  specially  fattened  slaves  for  their 
feasts.  A poor  slave  girl  would  sometimes  be 
commanded  by  her  master  to  bring  fuel,  light 
a fire  and  heat  an  oven,  and  then  would  be 
knocked  in  the  head  and  cast  into  the  oven. 
The  children  were  taught  the  severest  cruelty 


10 


from  the  first.  When  a child  was  named, 
small  pebbles  were  thrust  down  its  throat  to 
make  it  hard-hearted.  The  little  ones  were 
taught  to  be  liars  and  thieves.  In  1772,  the 
natives  killed  a ship’s  crew  numbering  twenty- 
eight  men.  Ten  years  later  they  killed  ten 
sailors  and  cooked  and  eat  them  in  triumph. 

Mr.  Marsden  preached  his  first  sermon  here 
on  Christmas  Day,  1814,  from  the  text,  “Be- 
hold I bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy.” 
It  was  ten  years  before  the  first  conversion. 
Not  until  1830  was  the  first  public  baptism, 
when  a chief  and  two  natives  were  baptized. 
Before  the  end  of  the  year  there  were  thirteen 
more.  After  this  the  progress  was  rapid.  In 
1842,  Bishop  Selwyn  wrote:  “We  see  here  a 
whole  nation  of  pagans  converted  to  the  faith. 
Where  will  you  find  throughout  the  Christian 
world  more  signal  manifestations  of  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Spirit,  or  more  living  evidence  of 
the  kingdom  of  Christ?”  There  were  soon 
20,000  church  members.  Speaking  of  the 
influence  of  the  mission  on  New  Zealand, 
Charles  Darwin  said:  “The  lesson  of  the 
missionary  is  the  enchanter’s  wand. 

Several  young  men  redeemed  from  slavery  by 
the  missionaries,  were  employed  on  a farm ; 
they  had  a respectable  appearance.  I found 
there  a large  party  of  children  collected  together 
for  Christmas  Day,  and  all  sitting  around  a tea 
table.  I never  saw  a nicer  or  more  merry 
group ; and  to  think  that  this  was  the  center  of 


a land  of  cannibalism,  murder,  and  atrocious 
crimes.” 

The  history  of  missions  to  the  Fiji  Islands 
is  a picture  of  the  brightest  light  shining  in  the 
deepest  darkness;  While  all  the  natives  of  the 
Pacific  were  barbarous,  the  Fijis  were  superla- 
tively bad.  The  missionaries  witnessed  scenes 
too  horrible  to  be  described,  too  full  of  fiendish 
cruelty  to  be  imagined.  The  Fiji  went  beyond 
the’  ordinary  limits  of  blood-shedding  and 
cruelty.  They  were  a disgrace  to  mankind. 
Female  children,  especially  were  killed.  “ Why 
should  a girl  live?,”  they  would  say.  “She 
can  not  poise  a spear;  she  can  not  wield  a 
club.”  There  was  a custom  of  strangling  the 
widows  after  the  death  of  their  husbands.  It 
was  the  privilege  of  the  oldest  son  to  take  the 
lead  in  strangling  his  mother  at  the  death  of 
his  father.  When  one  chief  was  lost  at  sea, 
seventeen  of  his  wives  were  strangled.  When 
the  army  was  defeated  in  1839,  eighty  women 
were  strangled. 

Cannibalism  was  one  of  their  greatest  sins. 
This  inhuman  practice  has  been  known  in  other 
ages  and  countries.  The  tribes  along  the 
Congo  seek  human  flesh  and  delight  to  find 
“ long  hogs,”  as  they  call  human  victims.  But 
in  the  Fiji  Islands  it  existed  to  an  extent  and 
with  horrors  unsurpassed  elsewhere  in  the 
world.  When  James  Calvert  went  there  his 
first  duty  was  to  gather  up  and  bury  the  bones 
of  eighty  victims  sacrificed  at  a cannibal  feast. 


He  lived  to  see  this  very  people  who  had  taken 
part  in  that  horrible  meal  seated  about  the 
table  of  the  Lord.  It  was  interwoven  with 
the  whole  frame-work  of  society,  so  much  so 
that  not  only  in  the  case  of  prisoners  taken  in 
war,  but  on  the  most  ordinary  occasions,  such 
as  the  building  of  houses,  the  launching  of  a 
canoe,  the  offering  and  eating  of  human  sacri- 
fices were  considered  indispensable.  Canni- 
balism was  one  of  the  important  things  in  the 
training  of  children.  Mothers  would  rub  a 
piece  of  human  flesh  over  the  lips  of  their 
children  in  order  to  give  them  a taste  for  blood. 
One  of  the  favorite  games  of  the  children  was, 
in  imitation,  the  whole  process  of  a cannibal 
feast.  They  played  cannibalism  as  our  chil- 
dren play  church.  To  such  an  extent  was  this 
crime  that  few  died  a natural  death,  and  for 
the  same  reason  an  old  man  was  seldom  seen. 
One  missionary  estimates  that  within  four  years 
no  less  than  five  hundred  persons  were  sacri- 
ficed and  eaten  within  twenty  miles  of  one 
island.  They  ate  human  flesh  chiefly  from  the 
love  of  it.  It  was  more  palatable  to  them  than 
pork.  It  is  said  the  flesh  of  foreigners  was 
often  too  strong  with  salt  and  tobacco  to  be 
good.  A certain  king  was  accustomed  to  return 
from  neighboring  islands  with  strings  of  the 
bodies  of  babies  hanging  from  his  canoe  like 
strings  of  fish  or  other  game,  tribute  exacted 
from  their  parents  for  food.  The  higher  the 
rank  the  more  this  revolting  custom  was  prac- 


13 


ticed.  A man  named  Loti  had  his  wife  help 
him  bring  wood  for  an  oven  and  a bamboo 
knife,  which  she  cheerfully  did,  and  then  killed 
and  cooked  her,  and  invited  his  friends  to  help 
eat  her.  Twenty-eight  persons  were  once 
seized  while  fishing  and  merely  stunned  and 
then  thrown  into  an  oven ; and  some  of  them 
recovered  and  attempted  to  escape,  but  were 
driven  back  upon  the  red-hot  stones.  A chief 
registered  the  number  of  bodies  he  ate  by 
stones  set  up  on  end,  and  a missionary  counted 
eight  hundred  and  seventy-two  stones.  The 
ovens  of  Bau,  used  only  for  cooking  human 
bodies,  were  said  to  be  seldom  cool.  A king 
said:  “White  men  make  good  eating;  they 
are  like  ripe  bananas.”  As  many  as  fifty  bod- 
ies have  been  cooked  for  one  feast.  Among 
these  would  be  found  men  and  women  of  all 
ages,  and  even  little  children.  On  one  occa- 
sion the  tongue  of  a prisoner  was  cut  out  and 
eaten  raw,  and  while  the  sufferer  begged  for 
speedy  death,  the  king  was  laughing  in  high 
glee.  Two  men  were  taken  in  battle  and  com- 
pelled to  dig  a hole  in  the  earth  for  an  oven 
and  cut  the  fire-wood.  Their  arms  and  legs 
were  then  cut  off,  w'hich  were  cooked  and  eaten 
in  the  presence  of  the  men  still  living. 

These  facts  are  sufficient  to  show  the  dark 
cloud  that  hung  over  the  group  of  beautiful 
islands.  The  people  bordered  the  line  of  total 
depravity.  But  they  were  not  beyond  the 
power  of  the  gospel.  Nowhere  else  did  the 


14 


worst  forms  of  savagery  seem  so  overpower- 
ing. It  was  a long,  hard  struggle.  After 
years  of  toil,  the  reward  came.  The  change 
was  complete,  and  the  growth  of  the  Christian 
community  rapid.  On  the  30th  of  April,  1854, 
the  king  ordered  the  great  wooden  drums  to 
be  sounded  to  call  the  people  to  the  important 
service,  at  which  heathenism  was  renounced 
and  the  gospel  embraced.  These  drums  were 
never  before  beaten  except  to  call  to  war  or  to 
a cannibal  feast.  In  1857,  the  king  put  away 
his  many  wives  and  was  publicly  baptized.  He 
and  his  people  became  loving  and  gentle.  The 
old  king,  once  treacherous,  and  a bloodthirsty 
cannibal,  died  in  1884,  a faithful,  gentle,  intel- 
ligent Christian,  who  was  greatly  beloved  by 
all  who  knew  him.  The  lion  had  become  a 
lamb.  Churches  were  organized,  places  of 
worship  were  provided,  which  were  crowded 
with  great  congregations.  In  every  island 
there  was  scarcely  a house  in  which  could  not 
be  heard  daily  morning  and  evening  prayers  in 
the  family.  Out  of  a population  of  120,000, 
at  least  102,000  were  regular  attendants  of  the 
church.  Forms  of  Christian  civilization  were 
adopted.  Your  property  is  as  safe  in  Fiji  as 
in  Tennessee  or  Ohio.  The  Fiji  were  formally 
annexed  to  Great  Britain  in  1874.  In  the  cer- 
emony of  cession,  the  king  handed  his  war-club 
to  the  commissioner,  saying:  “The  king  gives 
her  majesty.  Queen  Victoria,  his  old  and  fa- 
vorite war-club — formerly,  and  until  lately,  the 


IS 


only  known  law  of  Fiji.”  Sixty-seven  years 
ago  there  was  not  a single  Christian  in  Fiji; 
to-day  there  is  not  an  avowed  heathen.  For 
many  years  cannibalism  has  been  wholly  ex- 
tinct. 

There  is  a church  building  at  Bau.  In  the 
walls  are  to  be  found  stones  that  were  once 
gods,  stones  gathered  from  the  ruins  of  ancient 
heathen  temples,  stones  taken  from  fortifications 
over  which  men  once  fought,  bled  and  died, 
grim,  hard  stones  that  for  ages  absorbed  the 
tears  and  blood  of  generations  of  men  who 
walked  this  earth  without  God  and  without 
hope.  To-day  within  the  walls  of  this  strange 
church  building  stands  a rough  bowlder  of 
gray  rock  that  was  once  known  as  the  killing 
stone,  against  which  scores  of  poor  victims  of 
lust  and  murder  have  been  dashed  to  death 
to  make  a feast  for  the  heathen  lords  of  Bau. 
This  grim  memorial  of  dark  days  has  been 
turned  into  a baptismal  font  from  which  many 
hundreds  of  men,  women  and  children  have 
had  water  sprinkled  upon  them  for  baptism. 
There  would  have  been  a baptistery  instead  of 
a baptismal  font  in  this  building  if  a fuller 
gospel  had  been  preached.  We  rejoice,  how- 
ever, at  the  mighty  work  of  God  accomplished 
in  Fiji  by  our  Wesleyan  brethren.  They  have 
done  the  will  of  God  in  making  known  his 
saving  grace  in  that  land. 

The  Fijian  church  is  a missionary  body.  It 
has  sent  out  its  workers  to  New  Britain  and 


i6 


New  Ireland.  The  light  of  the  gospel  has 
flooded  the  whole  land  and  transformed  it  and 
made  it  another  kingdom  in  the  family  of  the 
civilized  nations  of  the  earth.  “The  uplifting 
by  the  sun  of  the  briny  waters  that  surge 
around  these  islands,  to  float  in  the  sky  and 
gleam  in  hues  of  light,  is  not  more  wonderful 
than  this  transformation  by  Divine  grace  of  the 
foul  and  fiendish  heathen  into  humble,  loving 
and  lovable  Christians — into  sons  of  God  and 
joint-heirs  with  Jesus  Christ.” 

The  Gospel  was  preached  to  the  Fuegians 
of  South  America.  They  were  an  exceedingly 
low  type  of  the  race.  Admiral  Sullivan  wrote 
to  Darwin  of  the  influence  of  the  mission,  and 
said:  “During  eleven  years  the  mission  fowl- 
house  had  remained  unlocked  and  not  one 
egg  had  been  stolen.”  Darwin  replied  that  he 
“could  not  have  believed  that  all  the  mission- 
aries in  the  world  could  have  made  the  Fue- 
gians honest.”  The  most  quarrelsome,  the 
most  dishonest,  the  most  superstitious  and 
cruel  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  became  models  of 
virtue  and  industry,  and  lived  in  the  very 
shadow  of  the  cross. 

Let  us  look  at  Greenland,  among  the  ice- 
castles  of  the  north.  The  people  were  as 
frozen  and  as  repellant  as  the  climate.  Success 
among  the  stolid,  stupid  Greenlanders  seemed 
as  hopeless  as  melting  the  ice-mountains  of  the 
Frozen  Pole.  They  knew  not  God.  No  lower 
type  of  paganism  was  to  be  found  on  the  face 


17 


of  the  earth.  They  were  without  temples  or 
idols.  Their  only  religious  emotion  was  fear. 
The  native  language  had  no  words  to  carry 
spiritual  ideas.  At  first  the  gospel  seemed  to 
have  no  power  to  impress  them.  They  ridi- 
culed whatever  the  missionaries  said.  While 
the  missionary  spoke  they  feigned  sleep  and 
snored.  They  would  drown  the  singing  with 
howls  and  beating  of  drums.  They  broke  open 
the  houses  of  the  missionaries,  destroyed  their 
furniture,  stole  their  food  and  manuscripts, 
pelted  them  with  stones,  and  destroyed  their 
boat.  And  when  starvation  looked  them  in 
the  face,  they  would  not  even  sell  them  a 
morsel  of  food,  though  they  had  an  abundance. 
The  Eskimos  were  repulsive  dwarfs.  Their 
looks  were  ugly,  their  habits  filthy.  They 
wallowed  like  hogs  in  the  mire  of  their  own 
filth.  At  last  the  long  winter  of  persecution 
and  patient  waiting  felt  the  warm  touch 
of  a new  spring  time.  The  icy  hearts  be- 
gan to  break  up.  The  whole  life  of  the 
people  was  changed.  Awful  cruelties  were 
replaced  with  Christian  kindness.  They  now 
had  thought  and  care  for  others.  Churches 
and  schools  were  planted,  and  the  whole  aspect 
of  the  country  was  changed.  Less  than  fifty 
years  ago  the  last  professed  pagan  died. 

The  gospel  conquered  the  Hottentot  terror, 
Africaner.  This  desperate  outlaw  was  known 
as  the  “Bonaparte  of  South  Africa.”  He 
waged  a constant,  cruel  and  relentless  war  with 
iS 


the  natives  about  him.  He  stole  cattle  and 
burned  huts.  When  Robert  Moffat  started  to 
his  village  he  was  warned  that  the  savage 
monster  would  make  a drum-skin  of  his  hide 
and  a drinking  cup  of  his  skull.  Africaner  was 
an  outlaw.  A reward  of  about  $500  had  been 
offered  for  his  head.  This  desperado’s  bloody 
hand  was  against  every  man.  But  where 
could  be  found  a man  that  would  capture  or 
kill  such  a monster  ? Moffat,  the  peerless 
missionary,  broke  his  stony  heart  and  won  him 
through  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  After- 
ward, an  African  chief,  gazing  at  Africaner, 
said  to  Moffat,  “ Look  I there  is  the  man,  and 
the  lion,  at  whose  roar  even  the  dwellers  in  far 
distant  hamlets  fled  in  terror  from  their  homes.” 
The  Government  of  Cape  Town  sent  for  him 
and  the  reward  offered  for  his  head  was  actually 
spent  in  gifts  for  himself  and  presents  for  his 
people.  He  traveled  with  Moffat  as  a co- 
laborer in  the  gospel.  The  last  words  of  this 
remarkable  trophy  of  Divine  mercy  were  these : 
“ 1 feel  that  I love  God,  and  that  he  has  done 
much  for  me,  of  which  I am  totally  unworthy. 
My  former  life  is  stained  with  blood;  but  Jesus 
has  pardoned  me.” 

Thuban,  the  king  of  Upper  Burma,  was  a 
monster  of  cruelty.  When  he  was  inaugurated, 
the  event  was  celebrated  by  a massacre  so  hor- 
rible that  several  hundred  of  the  nobility  were 
among  the  victims.  The  sacrifice  of  human 
life  was  common.  When  the  city  of  Mandalay 


19 


was  built,  fifty-six  young  girls  were  slain,  that 
the  eight  gates  of  the  city  niight,  by  their 
blood,  be  secured  from  all  invaders.  Thirty 
years  later,  in  the  same  city,  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Conference  was  held,  the  Judson  Me- 
morial Church  was  dedicated,  and  Burmese 
Christians  had  given  thousands  of  dollars 
toward  the  cost.  The  choir  was  composed  of 
native  Karen.  At  the  close,  Tamils,  Telugas, 
Burmans,  Karens,  Shans,  Eurasians,  English, 
Americans  and  Chinamen  sat  down  together 
at  the  table  of  the  Lord. 

These  are  only  a few  examples  of  the  suc- 
cess which  have  attended  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  among  the  lowest  classes  of  the  race. 

20 


